Digital Poetry
Introduction History Digital poetry is a relativiely new and inventive creation by poets who chose to experiment with the computer in the late 1950's. Digital poetry is not a singuler "Form" but rather mulitple forms of a singular idea. Digital poetry has been evolved over several years, refining various techniques for the World Wibe Web. Poets are using techniques that are both interactive as well as randomnized visual attributes in order to cause certain feelings or emotions to arise in their auidence. Common labels associated with digital poetry is "e-poetry", "cyber-poetry" , or "computer poetry". Poets orignally used computer programs as way to shape the content of their work and allowed the poet to change the form of the written work. References http://nora.lis.uiuc.edu:3030/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781405148641/ With Love From a Failed Planet (Shaw) Containing the same aspects that make poetry what it is, digital poetry takes the experience of reading poems to a different level. Digital poetry is an interactive experience that lends the reader the ability to choose his or her own course for the story being told. An excellent example of digital poetry comes from Jason Nelson entitled ''With Love From a Failed Planet.'' http://www.secrettechnology.com/flanet/ This specific example of digital poetry would not be as interesting in telling the story of a failed planet if it were not using the properties that make digital poetry what it is. While there are many things that make digital poetry unique, as displayed in ''With Love From a Failed Planet'', some compelling examples are the use of movement and of the reader’s choice. When first approached, the poem seems a little difficult to understand. Going into the reading thinking it will be similar to traditional poetry is an omission. The spinning globe is accompanied by trance-like music to imitate the future. Logos of many fortune five hundred companies are spinning around the sphere waiting to be hovered over by the mouse. The feelings that are detected while just observing the poem would certainly not be apparent in a solid format. Uncertainty, fear and, nervousness are a few emotions positioned inside the work. When selecting a company’s failing story to read first, the reader also selects the start of the poem. Digital poetry gives the reader all of the power to decide where to begin and end. The timeline of events unfold at the readers choosing are catastrophic for the company yet since the stories are so grabbing, its impossible not to keep going. Nelson’s poem is visually pleasing while a darker and more meaningful message is concealed within. http://rhizome.org/profiles/jasonnelson/?page=2 It gives you the comfort with the soothing music while telling tales of previous companies and their tribulation to create one coherent piece of poetry. This would not be possible in strictly written forms of poetry. The story relies on the atmosphere of the poem to play into the overall theme. ''With Love From a Failed'' '' Planet'' is, as stated previously, a rather dark piece. For example, when hovering over the Taco Bell logo, there is a hypothesis of how this fast food branch would someday meet its demise and the end only coming after a snowball effect of drunken college students that wish to have better quality food when intoxicated. Then scrolling over McDonalds, Nelson makes it feel real when stated that every North American branch had to close due to deaths. While these may seem a little far-fetched, the meaning is behind them is more relatable. Using the atmosphere Nelson created, the tall tales have some real significance. This poem is speaking out to humans and giving them some realization that things are not always going to be comfortable. While the poems contents are not intended to be literal, the messages and feelings that are created by the stories are. By utilizing the tools that make Digital poetry unique, Jason Nelson has created an alternate ending to life as we know it today. (Reiter) Digital poetry allows for the creation of and simultaneous display of visual and textual patterns. The sensation of exploration and investigation is sought through theoritical knowledge about that specific work or art. The digital poem'' ii-In the White Darkness ''wouldn't make sense to a lot of people unless you really sit down and evaluate the context of what you're looking at. Someone who simply looks at it without truly evaluating it can come to the obvious conclusion that it's a bunch of white dots. That it holds zero emphasis or appeal to emotional or psychological stimulus. However, this is not the case to the observant eye. ''ii-In the White Darkness '' calms you as you look individually at each dot. It has an almost hypnotic effect of drawing you in and allowing an instantaneous sense of relief to wash over your body. This piece almost allows for one to think about the fonder memories or shared with another person or perhaps a place of tranquility such as the ocean or a meadow. Futhermore, the target of this poem allows it draw on emotional appeals rather than a visual appeal. ''White Faced Bromeliads on 20 Hectares'' takes a different appeal. It is completely memory based which can not only be frustrating but also extremely confusing. As one begins to read the text, it changes every few seconds causing you to read from the beginning and start again. However, it is practically impossible to remember or read the entire text before the transition occurs. ''White Face Bromeliad on 20 Hectares'' is more about structure and order than any kind of emotional appeal. The only emotion one would probably feel trying to read this would be complete disarray and disregard for the subject. ''Sydendy's Siberia'' '' ''takes a different twist on the generic sense of poetry. This poem is more of an interactive piece causing the reader to investigate whatever the red box hover's over. It causes emotions such as excitement, curiousity, intution, and deductive reasoning to occur. Everytime an object is clicked on a new image, or verse appears. The more you click, the more you can read. This allows the reader to have a more playful reaction on the traditional sense of poetry. References http://elmcip.net/critical-writing/fertile-synthesis-emotion-online-digital-poetry http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/strasser_coverley__ii_in_the_white_darkness.html http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/glazier__white-faced_bromeliads_on_20_hectares.html http://www.secrettechnology.com/sydney/ Faith(Sitton) Digital poetry has an advantage over other mediums that poetry is created on such as paper or verbally, this advantage is the ability to change while the reader is experiencing the work. One digital poem that encapsulates this advantage perfectly is “Faith”, by Robert Kendall. The poem begins with the title of the piece displayed at the top in bright orange font, as smaller-sized, but same-colored “logics” fall onto it and bounce off of it before disappearing. This interaction shows that the concept of faith is stronger than the concept of logic at first. What someone wants to believe is going to last longer within their mind than facts or uncomfortable truths until they eventually reach the point of acceptance of their new knowledge. The first sentence is displayed on the screen with a sole logic still remaining, “logic can’t bend this”. This sentence cements the concept that faith is immobile from the effects of logic. In a more menacing red color a second sentence forms. The poem begins to make less sense at first. Elmcip.net states that “Each new state absorbs the previous one while at the same time engaging in an argument with it” . This form of arguing with the thoughts of the past while also absorbing them is present in how we as human beings think, and how we change our own opinions while using those same opinions to reach new conclusions in our thought patterns. The next input from the user says “Maybe. But…” when they want to advance onto the next slide. The poem is having the user actually interact as another party within the poem, we as the reader(s) are taking on the role as the befuddled reader, which may be true depending on who is reading.glance, mentioning a general idea of consummating a vision. It’s important to note that words that may at first disappear are brought back and reincorporated into the poem, Regular poetry is unable to have this kind of immersion form for the reader, one of the potential advantages to using a digital poem to express one’s thoughts. Other clever mechanics are shown through the poem, such as the next transition that shows the words “winking” and “neon” flashing and disappearing in unison with one another, causing only one to be visible at a time. Two letters are introduced that have quotations around them, the letter o and the letter r. Together when read they bring back one of the poem’s central themes, th e concept of choice. They form or, which means that the reader has the choice of choosing faith or something else, the something else being described in the next transition of the poem. The penultimate transition reveals the most words of any transition, filling in almost the entire white space with a definitive black text. The poem is now fully-formed, and tells the story how the poet has experienced knowledge, characterized as a “black, all-but-bottomless chasm”, and it has changed him. The only connection to faith that he has at this point is the poem he has written chronicling his experience, all other traces of his belief has been ebbed away by the chasm he has stepped into on his journey. The final parts of the poem speak of a one true word, leap, and how his leap has caused him to completely change his view of the world. The ending transition causes his final testament to faith, his poem, to collapse onto itself and form a pile of fallen words, while leaving the reader with a single sentence, “just to sum up: Faith.” Faith is placed on a pile of his jumbled words, much in the same way that all the beliefs he has put into his own faith have become an indecipherable heap of nothing. References